Missed opportunities haunt B’s vs. Red Wings

After the Patriots and Red Sox won in dramatic fashion the night before, the Bruins tried to channel their inner Tom Brady and David Ortiz versus the Detroit Red Wings Monday afternoon at the TD Garden, but fell short by a score of 3-2.

The B’s were off to a nice start before the game even started as the Red Wings scratched goaltender Jimmy Howard prior to game time, but the B’s could not get anything going against backup goaltender Jonas Gustavsson.

Head coach Claude Julien knows the team isn’t finishing their chances lately and it is coming back to haunt them.

“We’re really struggling with our finish lately,” Julien said. “It looks like we’re feeling the pressure of scoring goals and they’re not coming easy. So, it’s been like that. Even the game in Columbus, it took us a while to get going there and obviously Colorado. So, I think our goal scoring confidence is probably not where we’d like to be right now, but you have to work through those things.”

The Black and Gold had numerous chances to get back in the game including five power-plays (one 5-on-3) and could only watch Gustavsson (28 saves) stand on his head.

“We go through that it seems like every year at some point,” Julien said. “You’re seeing guys either fanning or shooting over the net. There were some scrambles there today where everybody thought the puck was going in the net and whether the goalie stops it or pucks are bouncing it doesn’t matter. The confidence isn’t there right now. You’re going to see us score some goals because we feel we have some guys that can score goals on this team.”

Milan Lucic indeed scored his 100th career goal in the losing effort today, but was more concerned with the teams’ loss.

“We were taking our shots, I think it was just an example of kind of how the whole game went today,” Lucic said. “We were creating chances, moving the puck, but we were just-the finish wasn’t there so, obviously right now, I think if you look at the last three games, bearing down is probably the biggest thing it comes to, when we get our opportunities and-but other than that I thought we played harder.”

Jarome Iginla has been snake-bitten so far this season and talked after the game about the golden chances the team had on the 5-on-3 power-play late in the third period.

“I think I had a few of them, One I just missed probably by a couple inches the top right corner, one I missed by a mile and that was just trying too hard and getting too excited I just missed it,” he said. “When you don’t score when you have a two-minute two-man advantage it stings, but at the same time I think the guys did a great job and just keep going almost to that last second. We really almost found a way to get it to over time there.”

The B’s missed opportunities today at crucial times in the game, but almost found a way to win. Despite their current scoring problems, this team will be fine. After all it is only Game 5 of 82.

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